Found in the Attic

Our designers were converting vacant space in City Hall into studies and offices for the Houston TV (HTV) as well as designing a new Diplomatic Reception Room for the mayor of Houston when they made quite the discovery in the building’s attic. They found slabs of unused stone and marble left over from the original installation, which they incorporated into the space.

The attic discovery neatly resolved a challenge to match the stone wall base of the lobby floor leading to the Diplomatic Reception Room with stone of the same type and color. Due to the unique red color and age of the material, our designers knew it would be very difficult to match it with any stone being quarried today.

Fortunately, the project contractor, Mark Crippen of Balfour Beatty, was familiar with the building and remembered a stockpile of materials at the top level. As it turned out, it included the original red stone, and enough of it to meet City Hall’s current needs. 

The Page project team used both the red stone and a piece of peach travertine, also found in the attic, to develop the colors of the new terrazzo floor installation. The flooring runs from the lobby to the Diplomatic Reception Room and is also used in the HTV space.

When it came time to select furniture for the mayor’s room, the Page team wanted to create something unique. They returned to the attic and found a very unique piece of marble that had all the right colors. Acacia, a local Houston custom commercial furnishings shop, was responsible for fabricating the tables with the found marble tops. It was exciting that an actual piece of the building gathering dust in the attic could be repurposed into a prominent piece of furniture that will be seen by visiting dignitaries and Houston mayors for years to come.

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